Dolly At Juno Download

Review: On the title track, Stuart Li opts for a defined sound, and does a fine job of replicating deep Detroit techno, replete with a swinging, off-beat rhythm underpinning his dreamy pads. Li casts his vision wider on "The Long Way" and "Flying Through The Fog", with heavy drums, reverberating claps and warbling acid lines complementing the dreamy melodies. However, none of these tracks can prepare the listener for Shed's remix of the title track. Like his Wax project jacked up on steroids, the slamming, rock-hard beats have a distorted resonance and the shredded, mangled percussion adds to the intensity. Only the rave-like dreaminess that underscores the remix provides a hint as to the track's origins.

Review: With just a few EPs under his belt - although one of them was with Szare from Horizontal Ground - it would be easy to overlook Brooks Mosher amid the deluge of new releases appearing every week. But while it takes some artists a lifetime to define their sound, Mosher's music has arrived fully formed and ready. Clearly inspired by the surging power of Drexciya and the raw primitivism of Omar S with a healthy dose of nagging acid, it's the basslines that make this release so strong. It also helps that on "Jupiter Attack" the driving hats sound like they're sparring with the resonating low end or that the title track forges a new middle ground between Detroit house trackiness and the swing of Chicago. It's not all rhythm-based functionality though and both "CIP" and "InterMetro" show that Mosher is capable of turning his attention to musical leanings, with his powerful rhythms providing the backdrop for outer space acid blips and rich, mournful chord progressions. Sounds like there's a new star in town.

Review: Aroy Dee has long been one of the main European purveyors of deep, Detroit influenced techno - and on Lost Digits, he again reminds the listener why he has earned that distinction. Rather than set trends, Dee is an adept curator, keeping the torch lit for introspective, emotive techno music. The title track is a classic case in point; Dee conjures up hushed chords over reverberated claps and hovering in the background is the kind of reversed vocal sample that featured heavily on tracks for the early Network compilations or slightly later on the A13 label. But Dee isn't content to consign his music to a head-nodding context and perhaps his other most significant contribution is his joining up of techno soul with a raw reading on Chicago house. It's audible on both "Belfast" and "Insolence", where eerie sytnhs and widescreen soundscapes get cosy with rasping hats, plunging, grainy basslines and doubled-up claps. Of the two tracks, "Insolence" will shade it for DJs thanks to its spacious rhythm, but "Belfast" is more out there by dint of its dense groove and liquid, morphing arrangement. Marcel Fengler also gets into the old school spirit for his version of the title track. Instead of stern industrial rhythms, the listener is presented with a rolling, filtered groove and building, layered synths - like vintage Stacey Pullen imagined through a streamlined European vision. At this rate they should just hand over the techno museum's keys to Dee, its chief curator.

Review: Recago is another master class from a producer who effortlessly crosses the divide between house and techno. The title track is fuelled by a slamming rhythm, but disco riffs and loose bongo drums offset its dense, acidic undercurrents. A similar approach is audible on "Ontak", where XDB lays down an upfront groove and a rumbling, menacing bass, but on this occasion warm synth riffs temper his techno leanings. "Sunda" is more delicate, its subtle piano lines unfolding over a stop-start bassy groove, but Brooks Mosher's remix of the same track brings the release to classic techno-house territories. Trance stabs and doubled-up claps are powered by a surging bass, and the arrangement allows Mosher to use the kind of evocative vocal sample last heard on Kevin Saunderson's classic "Forces" as Essa.